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First Impressions Podcasters.
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Hello First Impressions fans! We're excited to present our book review of The Making of Jane Austen by Devoney Looser! In her highly entertaining, amazingly informative and exhaustively researched work, Dr. Looser discusses how our view of Austen has evolved over two centuries, from kindly "Aunt Jane," to conservative darling, to feisty suffragette. Told through cultural artifacts such as books, plays, movies, banners, letters, and even the odd séance or two, Looser's work is an entertaining dive into the rich world of Austen reception studies. You'll be amazed at how many afterlives our beloved Jane has lived.

37 episodes available.
A new episode about every
34 days
averaging 84 mins duration
.

Gentle listeners, we are thrilled to bring you a very special podcast event! In this episode, your faithful First Impressions podcasters, joined by some good friends, are players in a Regency Era tabletop Role-Playing Game (RPG). Join Maggie, Kristin, and their friends Selvi and Priya, as together they uncover a world of secrets, love, and part ...…

Dear First Impressioners, have you ever been curious about the wide world of Jane Austen Fan Fiction (JAFF), and the writers that publish it? In this special episode, our friend Lona Manning joins us to discuss her experience writing and publishing her JAFF novels and stories! Be ready for some intriguing insights, from how historical fiction a ...…

Hello First Impressions fans! We're excited to present our book review of The Making of Jane Austen by Devoney Looser! In her highly entertaining, amazingly informative and exhaustively researched work, Dr. Looser discusses how our view of Austen has evolved over two centuries, from kindly "Aunt Jane," to conservative darling, to feisty suffrag ...…

Hello gentle listeners! We're excited to welcome our second FI fan and Clueless aficianado, Ellie, onto the podcast! Join us for a freewheeling discussion about Clueless and its impact on pop culture and subsequent Austen adaptations. We touch on lots of fun details about the movie, including a discussion of the book As If: The Oral History of ...…

Listeners, we're so excited to put out our first of two Clueless episodes! This episode stars longtime listener Tash from Sydney, an Austen scholar who helps to illuminate the brilliance of Clueless as a high-value, highly entertaining adaptation of Austen's beloved novel, Emma. Listen to learn about how Cher interacts with gender and the patri ...…

We're back with our second (and final) episode on John Mullan's book, What Matters in Jane Austen: Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved! This time, Maggie and Kristin tackle the subjects "Did Sisters Sleep Together?" and "What Games Did the Characters Play?" Get ready from some surprising insights that stem from these basic questions, as we plumb the ...…

First Impressions fans! We're SO EXCITED to release our discussion of the brilliant book, What Matters in Jane Austen? Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved by John Mullan. This book is full of surprising connections, fascinating analysis, and deep insight into Austen's life and works. In this episode we dig into two specific chapters of the book, focu ...…

Hi First Impressions fans! We know you're all waiting with bated breath for our next major episode, but in the meantime, here's the fourth installment of our movie commentary series for the 1995 Pride and Prejudice miniseries to tide you over. Keep your eye out for our next episode on What Matters in Jane Austen, by John Mullan, which will be c ...…

Gentle listeners, rejoice! Maggie and Kristin are reunited once more, this time broadcasting from beautiful Boise, ID, where we tackle the thrilling third episode of the 1995 miniseries adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. This is a movie commentary track, so you can listen while watching the movie, or simp ...…

Hello First Impressioners! We're continuing our commentary track series of that oh-so-perfect adaptation, the 1995 Pride and Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. The track was recorded while watching the second episode of the miniseries, but if you know the movie by heart like we do, you can also listen to it on its own! We hope to ...…

Hello First Impressioners! As promised, we're releasing the first of our commentary tracks on the 1995 classic Pride and Prejudice miniseries. The track was recorded while watching the first episode of the miniseries, but if you're familiar with the movie, Maggie tells me it can be listened to on its own as well! Stay tuned for more of these co ...…

Dear First Impressions listeners, thank you for being so patient with us. After many technical difficulties, we're so glad to present the second installment of our re-visitation of Pride and Prejudice! In this episode, we probe the Darcy-Elizabeth relationship, and how they both grow and change and come together to teach the admiring masses wha ...…

Hi First Impressions fans! We apologize for the wait for the next podcast we promised, P&P The Remix, Part 2. Due to technical difficulties we have not been able to complete that podcast yet (sad face), however, we do have a special bonus episode to tide you over while you wait! Kristin, Maggie and Bay check out a new Jane Austen trivia game, T ...…

[UPDATED FILE AVAILABLE: There seems to have been a glitch around minutes 3-5 of the first version of this podcast; we've uploaded a fixed version of the file for anyone who wishes to re-download it.] We knew you needed more, so we delivered! The girls are back to give Pride and Prejudice the complete podcast treatment, where all the minor char ...…

We're back, gentle listeners, with a spirited discussion of the 2007 movie The Jane Austen Book Club (which is based on the book of the same name). Jocelyn, Sylvia, Prudie, Grigg and the gang are back, and they're still well drawn characters with rich inner lives. Despite some misgivings, we greatly enjoyed this movie, and especially liked the ...…

Something a little different, listeners! BOYS! As you wait for us First Impressions gals to come out with our brilliant analysis of the Jane Austen Book Club movie, please enjoy this podcast we asked Kevin and Bay to put together on that beloved box office flop, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies! The guys warm up by talking about their own histor ...…

In this episode, the girls discuss the Jane Austen Book Club, a novel by Karen Joy Fowler. The book is a clever take on a group of friends who read Austen together as their lives begin to parallel Austen's plots in surprising ways. Kristin and Maggie can relate! The First Impressions podcast is a safe space for us to discuss our love for Jane A ...…

Ok, I'm just kidding. Episode 19 of First Impressions does not include an MMA-style cage match between two Persuasion movie adaptations, although I do wish we had thought of that before recording it! This episode is just a conventional yet spirited review of two adapatations of Austen's Persuasion: the 1995 Amanda Root/Ciaran Hinds version, and ...…

Maggie and Kristin present the second installment of their discussion of Jane Austen's Persuasion, a novel that is Austen-brand catnip for the romantic in all of us (yes, including a reluctant Kristin). We hope you enjoy it, gentle listeners. You pierce our souls, our hearts, our cheese, our mics, and our balloon animals. The First Impressions ...…

Hello First Impressioners! We bring you part 1 of our discussion on Jane Austen's Persuasion. Kristin attempts to enlighten Maggie to the fact that (1) Fredrick Wentworth is a dick, and (2) the dismal worldview and the autumnal themes Austen employs in Persuasion make this novel a hard read for sensitive souls. As always, the psychological nuan ...…

Welcome back, First Impressions listeners! In honor of our one-year anniversary, we've got a special episode for you! Special guest (and longtime fan) Bethany C. is joining us to tell us fascinating facts about Regency fashion and its importance in Jane Austen's novels. Ever wonder about pattens, petticoats, spencers, shoe-roses, pelisses, and ...…

Hello First Impressioners! In this episode Kristin and Maggie review their most beloved of all Austen adaptations, the triumphant 1995 movie directed by Ang Lee and written by Emma Thompson. From the fantastic casting, to the excellent screenplay, to the indelible performances, this film is (in our opinion) a masterpiece! For the film's full cr ...…

Welcome back, First Impressions fans, to our discussion of Austen's triumphant novel, Sense and Sensibility! In this episode, after excoriating Willoughby just as much as he deserves, Kristin and Maggie move on to the lighter side of the story, highlighting comic passages about Robert Ferrars, Mrs. Jennings, Anne Steele, Sir John Middleton, Cha ...…

Welcome to episode 13, gentle listeners! In this episode, Kristin and Maggie begin their discussion of Sense and Sensibility. The girls work their way through the plot of the novel by exploring the differences (and maybe similarities?) between the Dashwood sisters, Elinor and Marianne, and take a deep dive into each character's reaction to love ...…

In Episode 12, Kristin and Maggie review Love & Friendship, a newly released movie adaptation of Austen's comic novella, Lady Susan. Kristin relates an encounter with director Whit Stillman which raised him very much in her estimation, while Maggie bemoans the saccharine sweetness of star Kate Beckinsale's performance. In the end, the girls agr ...…

In Part 2 of their discussion of Jane Austen's Emma, Kristin and Maggie delve deep into the fraught and controversial relationship between Emma and Mr. Knightley, dodging the looming specters of "daddy issues," constant mansplaining, and general creepiness to find vindication for feminists who think the Emma-Knightley pairing is perfection.(We ...…

Kristin and Maggie tackle the novel Emma and wrestle with its challenging heroine, the disgustingly handsome, clever and rich Emma Woodhouse herself. The girls discuss how their ambivalent relationship with Emma changes during the progression of the novel, and Kristin reads page after delightful page of monologue from Miss Bates, one of Austen' ...…

Bonus episode! Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen's delightful parody of gothic romance, is full of surprises and humor. Kristin and Maggie highlight the hilarity of this adorable novel as it skewers of romantic convention, and review the charming meta-context Austen provides about novels and their value. They also discuss the 2007 BBC adaptation wr ...…

NOTE - NEW FILE AVAILABLE: If you are a subscriber and this episode auto-downloaded, we recommend deleting your file and re-downloading it. The new file has better audio quality. We apologize for the inconvenience! (Kristin did something to the file before converting it down to MP3 that degraded the audio quality and she didn't realize it. Oops ...…

In part 2 of the Mansfield Park series, Kristin indulges herself with an entire episode centered around the novel's famous set piece, in which the gang gets up a production of the scandalous play Lovers' Vows. Maggie contributes her theory as to how Mary Crawford's décolletage might affect the narrative. Kevin (Kristin's husband) guest-stars to ...…

In their third episode, Kristin and Maggie uncover the secret genius of Austen's complex and oft-misunderstood novel Mansfield Park. The girls discuss how the much-hated heroine of the novel, Fanny Price, is a victim of a Pygmalion tale gone awry. And Maggie is shocked to discover the secret sexual imagery amidst all that "dull" landscaping tal ...…

Welcome back to First Impressions, the podcast for Austen lovers to stand up to their haters. In their second episode, podcasters Kristin and Maggie illuminate the brilliance of Austen's work by discussing Pride and Prejudice as an excellent tutorial for the socially awkward. The girls illustrate the genius of the 1995 A&E and BBC adaptation of ...…

Welcome Jane Austen lovers and haters alike! In their first podcast, Kristin and Maggie discuss Jane Austen's classic novel Pride and Prejudice. Kristin explains how Austen's portrayal of Mr. Darcy transformed her understanding of her own social anxiety, and why people who dismiss Austen's works as "love in bonnets" are missing the point. The F ...…

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